Police arrest suicidal man for assault after he cut himself

Tommy Lee Orr

By Joe Johnson

Athens-Clarke County police recently arrested a suicidal man who cut his wrist and charged him with aggravated assault.

The incident happened the afternoon of March 5th in the parking of Microtel Inn & Suites on Ultimate Drive.

The mother of 30-year-old Tommy Lee Orr had called 911 to report that her son was suicidal and she tracked his pickup truck to the hotel.

According a report by the first officer at the scene, when he approached the truck Orr told him to stay back because he had a gun.

Senior Police Officer Jonathan Surine reported that he then took cover behind another vehicle and waited for backup to arrive.

With backup officers in place, Surine said that he trained his rifle on Orr and watched as a police supervisor gave instructions over a public address system.

When Orr complied with an order to place his hands outside the window, he was seen to be holding a pocketknife and he obeyed a command to drop it.

After he started up the truck, Orr eventually turned it back off when told to.

He then exited the vehicle, tossed the keys to the ground and picked up the knife.

“Fearing for my safety, and other officers’ safety, I pointed my rifle at him and was prepared to shoot him if he advanced toward me and the other officers,” Surine wrote in his report.

Orr did not advance toward the officers, and instead picked up the knife and cut his wrist and returned to the truck.

“Mr. Orr then got back out of the vehicle and was wounded,” the report continued. “I noticed there was blood dripping down his arm. He started to advance towards officers. I noticed that he was no longer holding the knife. He was given commands to get on the ground.

“I held him with lethal cover during this process because I didn’t know where the knife was,” the report states. “He complied with all commands and then he was handcuffed and searched by other officers.”

Orr was transported to the hospital and released to medical staff.

Surine reported that he had probable cause to seek an arrest warrant charging Orr with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer because he had “brandished a knife and was holding it in a threatening manner” and also because “I felt in fear for my life that he was going to use the knife against me, another officer, was a threat to public safety in an open occupied parking lot.”

Another warrant sought by the officer was for possession of a knife during the commission of certain felonies,

The arrest warrants were signed by Magistrate Court Judge Donarell Green IV and Orr was booked into the county jail eight days later, upon his release from the hospital.